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FBC: Firebreak Includes All These Changes For Launch, Including "Radically More Powerful" Weapons
Following the recent closed test for FBC: Firebreak, game director Mike Kayatta from Remedy has revealed some of the changes that the studio is making to the game based on fan feedback.
Kyatta said Remedy has received lots of important and helpful feedback so far, and this will result in major changes to weapon balance. "Guns are upgradable in Firebreak, but we now think we went too far with how weak they felt at the earliest levels," Kyatta said. "In response, we are making all level-one guns radically more powerful, while adjusting other parts of the game to maintain the challenge balance."
Kyatta added that it heard from players that the double-barrel shotgun did not feel quite right, and the studio agrees, so it's making some changes to "make sure it meets the expectations of its shooting style." The developer also mentioned how "everything" related to general combat intensity and difficulty levels has been overhauled. "Among other things, we're tying different enemy types to different threat levels, adjusting wave frequency and composition, and removing awkward lulls in the action," Kyatta said.
Continue Reading at GameSpotBungie Bosses Wanted Destiny 2 To Be A Subscription Service - Report
After Bungie was hit with plagiarism allegations for its Marathon revamp, more information has been revealed about other problems within the company. Aside from a toxic work environment coming from the top of Bungie, company heads were pitching to give Destiny 2 a subscription service on top of already paying for a PlayStation Plus membership.
Former Bungie employees spoke with Save State Plus, claiming that leaders were quick to shut down ideas and would publicly belittle staff.
"Everything happening to Bungie is because of greed," said a former Destiny 2 developer, which was the focus point for many former employees. When higher-ups pitched a subscription model for Destiny 2, it was only allegedly shut down due to the staff's "vehement" opposition. That would mean players would pay for a sub on top of other necessary subs like PS Plus, depending on your platform. Bungie's leadership followed that up by reportedly holding a meeting where the staff were given a "monetization scolding" for not enabling enough microtransactions.
Continue Reading at GameSpotMicrosoft's Years-Long Battle To Buy Activision Blizzard Is Now Finally Over
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has dropped its case against Microsoft that sought to block the company's blockbuster $75.4 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The deal was already approved, but the FTC was appealing the decision.
A memo from the FTC states that, "The Commission has determined that the public interest is best served by dismissing the administrative litigation in this case. Accordingly, it is hereby ordered that the complaint in this matter be, and it hereby is, dismissed."
Microsoft president Brad Smith said this was a "victory for players across the country and for common sense in Washington, D.C."
Continue Reading at GameSpotAll 140 Episodes Of Pokemon the Series: XY Are Coming To Netflix
Next month, the entire run of Pokemon the Series: XY will be available to watch on Netflix. This includes the first series--as well as Kalos Quest and XYZ--and like previous Pokemon animated projects, XY is a loose adaptation of the Pokemon X and Y games released for the Nintendo 3DS handheld console.
Once again starring Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu, XY is set in the Kalos region of Pokemon and several characters from the game make an appearance here. Traveling alongside his new friends Clemont--the Gym Leader of Lumiose City's Gym--and Bonnie, Ash explores the region, uncovers new Pokemon, and discovers the power of Mega Evolution. Team Rocket also makes several appearances, but as you'd guess, their schemes are quickly foiled by the end of each episode. The series will be added to Netflix on June 1 (via Comic Book).
Overall, you can expect to binge on a lot of Pokemon animation here. The first series ran for 48 episodes, Kalos Quest ran for 45 episodes, and XYZ wrapped up the saga with a run of 47 episodes. There were a handful of special episodes, as well as feature-length movies set during this era of Pokemon. The series is available on DVD, just in case the episodes don't appear on your local Netflix, due to licensing restrictions.
Continue Reading at GameSpotDoom: The Dark Ages Is About To Get Even More Punishing On Its Toughest Difficulty Mode
Doom: The Dark Ages excels at making players feel like an unstoppable tank, but developer Id Software is looking to make the game more challenging. What's interesting here is that Id will make use of what it calls "Tunables," a system that allows it to update parts of the game without needing to release a patch.
While Tunables can't fix complex systemic, content, or code-related bugs, they can adjust parts of the new Doom game to create subtle but noticeable changes. Overall, players wanting to test their mettle on Nightmare difficulty can expect to start sweating, as enemies like the Cosmic Baron and Hellknight will start doing more damage. Id says that it wanted to increase the threat level of these enemies on Nightmare difficulty, and as an example, missing a parry on the Agaddon Hunter's overhead slash will break your shield and leave you vulnerable for a short period.
"There are systems under the hood that are designed to give players a better chance to survive when near death, and those systems were being too generous," Id explained. "Players were able to brute-force their way through situations that should've resulted in costing a Life Sigil or death, and we want to make sure we are keeping the player in check and asking for better tactical decisions. These changes will have an impact on player survivability and will be more noticeable the higher up the Damage Scale slider you go."
Continue Reading at GameSpotGoogle's New Video AI Is Making Extremely Convincing Fortnite Gameplay
Google has released a new AI video generation tool, and it's clearly very familiar with what Fortnite gameplay looks like. The advanced AI tool generated some very convincing Fortnite footage in response to a simple prompt, churning out a clip that's almost indistinguishable from the real thing.
Veo 3, the latest video generation model from Google DeepMind, released this week, and already is creating some concerningly realistic footage with its added capacity to generate lifelike audio. The AI tool is also showing a blatant disregard for intellectual property--which may be of more concern to many of the companies that have been quick to implement AI technology.
As picked up by IGN, X user Matt Schumer posted a short clip generated by Veo 3 that shows a streamer winning a game of Fortnite. While it looks a little odd to have the streamer's face cam superimposed over a shot of a computer monitor, rather than direct gameplay footage, the clip is otherwise indistinguishable from real Fortnite gameplay.
Continue Reading at GameSpotNew Steam Deck Update Adds Battery Saver, Third-Party Device Support, And More
A big new update for SteamOS is here, after months of development in beta. SteamOS Version 3.7.8 includes a lot of fixes and improvements on a system level, and will also introduce a battery saver feature for the Steam Deck for the first time.
The new battery saver option is called Battery Charge Limit, and can be found under the Power submenu in Settings. The feature allows users to set a maximum charge limit for their Steam Deck, with a maximum of 80% charge recommended for devices that are usually left on charge, or that rarely have their battery fully depleted.
This kind of feature, designed to prolong the working life of lithium-ion batteries, is already commonly implemented in devices like mobile phones and laptops, and now is starting to become more common in the gaming space. Nintendo recently revealed that the Switch 2 will have a similar feature, which will stop the hybrid handheld console from charging once it reaches 90%.
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